1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus that guides a subject vehicle to a destination and a vehicle guiding method, and more specifically, it relates to an apparatus and a vehicle guiding method, with which guidance is provided by displaying an arrow indicating the direction of the next turn that the vehicle should take instead of displaying a map.
2. Description of Related Art
There are navigation systems known in the related art that guide a vehicle to a destination by indicating the direction of the next turn along a route having been set with an arrow instead of displaying a map. There is a problem with regard to these navigation systems in that when the vehicle is located off the route and cannot be guided along the route, the positional relationship between the route and the vehicle cannot be ascertained. This problem is addressed in the navigation system described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-346650 that stores in memory in advance a plurality of pattern diagrams each indicating an approximate positional relationship between the route and the vehicle, calculates the distance to the route and the direction of the route if the vehicle is located off the route and selects and displays the most suitable pattern diagram among the stored pattern diagrams based upon the calculation results. The navigation system thus ascertains the positional relationship between the route and the vehicle.
However, there is a limit to the number of pattern diagrams that can be stored in memory in advance in the navigation system described above. For this reason, there may not always be a pattern diagram that matches a specific route shape or a specific positional relationship between the route and the vehicle, and if the vehicle moves off the route under such circumstances, the positional relationship between the vehicle and the route cannot be indicated in an easy-to-read manner.